Song of the Day - 24th April

Today's Song of the Day was written for the theme of St. George's Day, which was yesterday, but it can be used for any April concert as it is a setting of Robert Browning's famous poem "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad".

Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets.

By the age of 12, Browning had written a book of poetry, which he later destroyed for want of a publisher. After attending one or two private schools he was educated at home by a tutor, using the resources of his father's 6000-book strong library. By 14 he was fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin. He became an admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley, whom he followed in becoming an atheist and a vegetarian. At 16, he studied Greek at University College London, but left after his first year. His parents' evangelical faith prevented his studying at either Oxford or Cambridge University, both then open only to members of the Church of England. He had inherited substantial musical ability through his mother, and composed arrangements of various songs. He refused a formal career and ignored his parents' remonstrations by dedicating himself to poetry. He stayed at home until the age of 34, financially dependent on his family until his marriage in 1846 to the semi-invalid poet Elizabeth Barrett, who was disinherited by her father for marrying. 

"Home Thoughts, from Abroad" was written in 1845 while Browning was on a visit to northern Italy, and was first published in his Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. It is considered an exemplary work of Romantic literature for its evocation of a sense of longing and sentimental references to natural beauty.

My song is a gentle, predominantly homophonic setting using an ABA form, reprising verse 1 after verse 2, which finishes the setting off satisfactorily. 

This song is being beta tested by the Elmbridge Choir.

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

By Robert Browning

Oh, to be in England

Now that April’s there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—

That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children’s dower

—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!